RR recently interviewed
Spends Quality, the CEO of CFO Recordings, also a recording
artist in his own right. Adam's chat with SQ encouraged me to delve
deeper into the CFO catalogue, and what I came back to the surface
with was J.Kendall's debut album "Moving Forward." Kendall's bio
describes him as "an enduring force in the Bay Area hip-hop/R&B
scene" which immediately had me wondering "Which is he - R&B
or hip-hop?" The fact his album was produced by N8 the Gr8 of
The CUF was all the
reassurance I needed to know this project would be up my alley, so
I put it in my player for a spin.

It turns out the "R&B" part of the scene was the correct place to
put the focus. J.Kendall is a crooner, unapologetically so, though if you
were to put him in a rap context you could compare him to
Frank Ocean - with
a few necessary qualifications. I don't find him to have Ocean's vocal
range, Ocean's tendency toward odd (pun intended) narrative freestyle,
nor Ocean's ambiguously sexual lyrics. I DO find Kendall to
have Ocean's laid back, California lifestyle vocal tone and delivery; I
DO find Kendall to have the same leaning toward modern
hip-hop influenced constructions in the beats that he croons over.
He even tends a little toward T-Pain on "All Night Long," working AutoTune into the hook.

Let me take you back to J.Kendall's bio for a moment - it brags that
he's shared the stage with everyone from Souls of Mischief to Lyrics
Born and GZA. Sadly none of those artists make cameos on "Moving
Forward," although the bio neglects to mention he does have some
quality guests (pun intended again) in form of Spends Quality and
Equipto on "The Bay." Most people will be sold on cruising to the
song the moment he utters "smokin on the finest grass." Other cameos
include N8 the Gr8 on the rugged and bouncy "Oh!" and Maryann
on "Rollin'" - a track that reminds me of Georgia Anne Muldrow and
Dudley Perkins for all the right reasons.

While J.Kendall is a generally enjoyable and inoffensive singer, he
may be disappointed when I say he doesn't reach out and grab me with
his vocals. Even Chris Brown's and R. Kelly's detractors (and there are
many) will admit (however begrudgingly) that they have voices which
are unique in not just their vocal range but in their ability to convey
emotion and make you feel what they're feeling. It may be that Kendall's
lyrics are just too blase on songs like "1000 Times," when he offers
fairly generic platitudes like "when it's good it's good/making love/
all night long/when it's bad it's bad." On the other hand, I think Robert
Kelly or Franklin Ocean could have made those words sound so much
more personal, much more yearning, much more intense. Kendall
is likeable but that's not enough to stand out - he needs mo' intensity.